Healthy Beverage Advice: What Should You Be Drinking?

What you drink is more important for your health than you might think. Read on for more information on healthy beverage advice, and why your choice of drink could actually be doing you more harm than good.

Iron is an important mineral, especially for women. At least forty per cent of women in the UK and North America are believed to be susceptible to iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic drink across the world. We drink things like tea, coffee and milk without a second , but they can actually stop the iron we get in our diets being absorbed properly. This is particularly bad news for women, who lose over fifty per cent more iron than men as a result of menstruation. For women with heavy periods, this is even more of an issue.

Calcium and zinc are other important minerals that are affected by what you choose to drink, especially with your meals.

Caffeinated drinks such as tea, coffee and fizzy drinks have a negative effect on iron absorption. Drinking caffeine with a meal can stop up to half of the iron from being absorbed, as well as affecting the absorption of other minerals such as calcium and zinc. We need plenty of calcium in our diets for healthy teeth and bones (otherwise we risk getting osteoporosis or ‘brittle bones’ in later life), and it also plays a part in making sure our blood clots properly and that our muscles stay strong.

Tea in particular affects iron absorption from plant sources such as leafy green vegetables, but to be on the safe side, it’s best that any drink containing caffeine is drunk at least one hour before or after a meal to give the iron and other minerals or vitamins time to absorb. You don’t have to give up on caffeine altogether though. Tea is thought to have heart protecting benefits, although this isn’t certain. Just one cup of tea per day is believed to have positive benefits.

Caffeine also increases both glucose and insulin levels, which is a problem for anyone with diabetes, especially Type 2 diabetes. As reducing glucose levels is obviously of great importance to anyone suffering from diabetes, drinking caffeinated drinks at mealtimes is bordering on the dangerous. In addition, when a diabetic drinks a caffeinated drink with or close to meals, the caffeine hinders the body’s ability to metabolize the meal.

Caffeine also takes water out of your system, so all of your hard work in drinking eight glasses of water per day are pretty much undone by drinking several cups of tea, coffee or soft drinks.

We’ve been advised for many years to encourage our children to drink milk with every meal to make sure that they get enough calcium for their growing bones, but in actual fact the jury is still out on whether it’s good or bad to drink milk with your meals. Milk is also thought to hinder iron absorption, so milky tea or coffee would be a double no-no as a mealtime drink. As with caffeinated drinks, it’s best to avoid drinking it at least an hour either side of meals. If the meal has calcium but doesn’t contain iron, it’s fine to drink milk with it to help the calcium to absorb, but still stay clear of the tea and coffee as they will interfere with the calcium absorption.

An alternative to drinking milk with your meals is just to drink the milk in-between meals instead. That way you and your family can still consume the recommended daily allowance of calcium without taking the risk of negatively affecting the vitamins and minerals in your food.

Alcohol is another drink to stay clear of at mealtimes, with the exception of wine. Wine is more than just a tool for helping you to unwind at the end of a stressful day. As well as containing a small amount of iron, wine also plays a part in iron absorption, so make like the French and drink a glass with your evening meal.

Red wine is thought to have health benefits for the heart and the general cardiovascular system due to antioxidants in the grapes that it’s made from. Research has also suggested that the antioxidant resveratrol may play a part in slowing down the development of tumours in some forms of cancer. It is thought to be useful in the treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease too.

Research from the University of California indicated that wines to look out for include Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Syrah and Pinot Noir. In general, they found that the dryer the wine (and the less sweet the wine) the more beneficial it was. One four-ounce glass of red wine per day is all that is recommended for women (and a maximum of two four-ounce glasses of red wine per day for men). This is recommended for healthy people only. Anything more than the recommended daily units is starting to verge on binge drinking territory, and this obviously carries health risks in the long-term. Binge drinkers are more likely to die than people who regularly only consume alcohol on a moderate basis.

For all other alcohol, leave at least an hour either side of meals. Alcohol destroys vitamin B6 by separating it from its protective binding, and directly intervenes with B12 absorption into the intestines. As well as interfering with vitamin and mineral absorption, alcohol also tends to deplete the body of existing vitamin and mineral reserves.

One drink that is definitely recommended at mealtimes is orange juice. The ascorbic acid found in vitamin C drinks promotes the absorption of iron. The iron and vitamin C should be taken as close together as possible for maximum effectiveness. Foods that are rich in vitamin C (such as cauliflower) have the same effect as a vitamin C drink.

Another drink that is fine to take with meals is water. Drink a glass with every meal and in-between meals to get the recommended eight glasses of water per day. Water also contains some minerals itself. Water helps you to feel full quicker, and people who are looking to slim down often drink a glass of ice-cold water around twenty minutes before a meal to speed up the metabolism and burn more calories.

As a side note, what you choose to drink with your meals can affect your weight as well as your overall health. Drinks are a hidden source of calories - most people treat their daily calorie intake as being taken from the foods that they eat over the course of the day and may pay little or no consideration as to how calories from their drinks fit into this. Your choice of drinks can contribute anything from 10% to 50% of your daily calorie intake depending on whether you mainly drink water or soft drinks. Sweet drinks are a major culprit here.

It stands to reason that even the most healthy meal will lose at least some of its healthiness if you drink an unhealthy drink with it. Unhealthy refers to the obvious candidates like soft drinks, but it also refers to drinks such as coffee and some fruit juices (excluding orange juice).

I hope these tips on how to drink healthy have helped!

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